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Helper Utah located in carbon county utah


Helper Utah in the Summer



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Heritage Week 2008


Photo Journals of Previous Events...


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Helper Utah located in carbon county utah

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Helper Utah located in carbon county utah

Heritage Week 2008
Sponsors & Info

Gold Level Sponsors...

Teply Graphic Arts & Publishing

Teply Graphic Arts & Pub., LLC
(435) 472-6666

True West Magazine

True West Magazine
1-888-687-1881

Workmen's Market
 

101 West
200 North
Helper, Utah 84526

(435) 472-3449
email: workmens@gmail.com



Malcolm Howard Photography
email: MalcolmLonna@EmeryTelcom.Net

Helper Councilman
Phillip "PJ" Jensen
and Shauna Jensen


Destination Helper

Destination Helper
(435) 472-6666


Image Replicas Mercantile

Image Replicas Mercantile
(435) 472-6666


Helper Clampers

E Clampus Vitus
Matt Warner Chapter

288 South Main Street
Helper, Utah 84526

The Balanced Rock Regulators

The Balanced Rock Regulators
(435) 472-6666

U.S.S. Rebecca




Hillbilly Voodoo

Silver Level Sponsors...


Utah Power Credit Union
Balance Rock Branch

(435) 687-9535
 Helper Antique Mall
& Plum Country

115 & 119 So. Main Street
Helper, UT 84526

(435)-472-8883


West Ridge Resources
(435) 888-4000
Fax: (435) 888-4002

Bronze Level Sponsors...


TRAM Electric Inc.
(435) 637-7291

JOY Mining Machinery
(435) 637-6161
James Banasky
Insurance, Inc


(435) 637-7803
email: banains@emerytelcom.net

Brass Level Sponsors...



Longwall West, Inc.
(435) 637-5002


Kraync Motor Co.
(435) 637-3131


Mad Man Basso Auto Sales
(435) 637-0110

Other Level Sponsors...


Bill's Home Furnishings
(435) 637-5776

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 Helper Utah located in castle country utah


The Western Mining & Railroad Museum's
Heritage Week...

Current Schedule of 2008's Events...

What is Heritage Week...

How did Heritage Week get its start...

Free Posters and Radio Interview Download...
 

Sponsor and/or Vendor Information...

Bordello Bed Race: Rules, Info & Entry form...

2008's Heritage Week Sponsors & Links

Museum's Heritage Week 2008 ( June 2-7 )...


Heritage Week 2008 in Helper, Utah

In 2006, Helper was voted as the #10 True Western Town! In 2007, we became the #1 Top Ten True Western Town. Due mainly to the Western Mining & Railroad Museum, Heritage Week and the Balanced Rock Regulators. Come and see what makes us #1 and help us celebrate our "badness!"

Tuesday, June 3, 2008 - "Ghost Towns by Dusk." @ 7PM
A guided driving tour and preview of SueAnn Martell's next book, Coal Camps of Eastern Utah through the area ghost towns. Stay until dark for some scary (but true!) local ghost stories. Admission is by donation. Caravan starts at the Western Mining & Railroad Museum.

Thursday, June 5, 2008 - "2nd Annual Bordello Ball" @ 7PM
Come celebrate Helper's unique past with the 2nd Annual Bordello Ball. The event features a sit down dinner, lecture by Utah outlaw and lawman historian Joel Frandsen, and a live auction. All proceeds benefit the Western Mining & Railroad Museum Expansion Project.
Advanced tickets are required - $25 per person or $45 per couple. Old West-style costumes are encouraged. Don't worry tenderfeet, no dancing is involved, but we guarantee you will have a "ball!"

Photos of some of the Bordello Ball Auction items are here...
Carbon County Photo Quilt - Handmade Front - 392k
Carbon County Photo Quilt - Handmade Back & Closeup of an "inset" - 392k
Butt Quilt - Handmade from the butts of jeans - 272k
Rosary #1 - Handmade from Paua Shells - 156k
Rosary #2 - Handmade - 216k

Friday, June 6 - "1st Annual Helper Model Railroad Show"
@ Noon-7pm & Saturday, June 7 @ 9
AM - 6PM

The Ophir Tintic Model Railroad Club displays their model setups from tiny "N" scale and some "HO" scale! At the Helper Civic Auditorium. Free Admission.

Friday, June 6 - "Old West Evening Outdoors" @ 6PM
Famed local Helper band Hillbilly Voodoo and Old West Entertainment at the Main Street Park Stage (next to the Post Office). Bring your lawn chairs or blanket. Food available for sale. Admission is free.

Saturday, June 7, 2008 - "Old West Chuckwagon Breakfast" @ 8AM - 10PM
At the Balance Rock Eatery - 148 South Main Street, Helper.

Saturday, June 7, 2008 - Family Heritage Day @ 10AM - 4PM
Guided Museum tours!
Old West shootouts by the Balanced Rock Regulators!
Mining safety demonstrations by West Ridge Coal Mine at Main Street Park!
"Exploring Castle Country - The Immigrants of Carbon County" traveling exhibit
from the University of Utah Marriott Library Special Collections at the Rio Theatre.
Old Time photographs with "real" outlaws!
Food & Vendors' Row! Helper Merchants' Sidewalk Sale!
Admission is free, but donations are appreciated.

Saturday, June 7, 2008 @ 2:30-5PM - Bordello Bed Race
Come see some of Utah's fastest themed Racing Bordello Beds and Teams compete down Helper's Main Street.

Admission to most events is free, but donations are appreciated. Turn of the century costumes are encouraged at all events, but not required.

Events subject to change. Keep checking back for a current schedule of events.

Click here for the Detailed Schedule of Events!

Click here for Sponsor and / or Vendor Information!

Click here for a free download of the 2008 poster! (1.9Megabyte Hi Resolution version.)

What is Heritage Week...


Heritage Week was the week-long celebration of the Western Mining & Railroad Museum. (As of November 2008, it has been turned over to benefit the non-profit organization, the Eastern Utah Tourism & History Association.) Helper is NOT your stereotypical Utah town! In fact, Helper is the black sheep of Utah -- and mostly proud of it! Helper has a unique and colorful history of railroads, coal mining, bordelleos, riots, and outlaws! It is a fact that there were more bars and brothels in Helper than there were churches -- and Butch Cassidy robbed the Castle Gate payroll here.

Teply Graphic Arts & Publishing, LLC (TGAP) has been a proud sponsor, event coordinator, marketing agency, participant and gun-toting outlaw of this event for the last four years -- but it has grown to a size where TGAP can no longer be a 90% sponsor/underwriter! However, that is a saga for print elsewhere! That's why we are offering Image Replicas Mercantile -- buy a museum quality historical photo reproduction (or other Old or New West merchandise) and support Heritage Week.

Heritage Week has gained national coverage and notoriety to the point that True West Magazine named Helper, Utah as a Top Western Town for two years. In 2006, we were #10. In 2007, we jumped to #1!


A lot of the credit goes to museum director SueAnn Martell's efforts in resurrecting and reviving Helper's history. She is also spearheading a much needed museum expansion -- which will also make the museum handicapped accessible. In fact, she just won an award from the Utah Humanities Council for her historic presevation efforts!

Her next major effort is to hijack a time machine and stalk Butch Cassidy -- only to find the Castle Gate Payroll gold and maybe steal his horse, and his guns, and have him autograph a photo or two dozen!


Every year there are events ranging from Cemetery and Haunted Tours and guest lectures right up to the big finale where we shut down Main Street and have members of the Balanced Rock Regulators shoot up the street with Hollywood-style smoky blanks. We also have food vendors, a merchant's row and a photo contest. Heritage Week grows every year and is rapidly becoming Helper's biggest event!

This will be our second year for the Bordello Ball -- where "soiled doves" will roam amongst the dinner guests. This event will be a fund-raiser for the museum. Dinner guests will be treated to a dinner prepared in the style of the old Helper saloons and brothels while our guest speaker will tell historical tales and topics. After the dinner an auction will further help to promote and help the museum with its operations and expansion.

Wednesday, June 4th, 2008 will be your last chance to buy tickets for the Bordello Ball! After that, ticket sales are closed. Contact the museum at 435.472.3009 to pre-purchase tickets. Seats are limited!

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How did Heritage Week get its start...


Originally set aside as part of the statewide Utah Prehistory Week, Heritage Week was sort of a footnote. With such a vast and diverse history, Utah and Helper's heritage needed its own week to promote history and the preservation thereof.

In 2002, the Western Mining & Railroad Museum under the direction of SueAnn Martell and with the help of Darrin Teply, moved Heritage Week to the first week of June and took the lead.

The first Heritage Week was in 2003 and coincided with the unveiling of "Helper - the Hub of Carbon County" exhibit. This exhibit told over 100 years of Helper's history and how it affected Carbon County. It was a quiet affair. While the first Heritage Week was good, the second Heritage Week was a success!

Helper, Utah - Top Ten True Western Town Award


The next year, with the help of a national game vendor and the Balanced Rock Regulators reenactment and the Carbon County SASS group, Heritage Week attracted visitors from far distances who came just for the event. These areas were as far away as Las Vegas, NV and San Diego, CA!

Doing our own promoting and with people "shooting up the street" we pulled in more money through the museum's gift shop and visitors on the last day in FOUR HOURS (before Main Street flooded in the rain) than any other of Helper's multiple day events!

Year after year, we have had repeat visitors from Provo, Salt Lake, St. George, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho and Nevada!

This success came to the notice of True West Magazine who looked into other activities that the museum was doing and in 2006 named us as their Number 10 True Western Town. We kept up with our history preservation activities and in 2007 we were named their #1 True Western Town. Right now, we're having ulcers trying to figure out how we're going to top that... but we will!

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Want a free poster or hear an interview about 2008's Heritage Week...



Click here if you want to download a free poster of 2008's Heritage Week. It is in an Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) and is 1.9Megabytes in size which will take a little less than 6 minutes to download with a phone line and be much faster with a broadband connection.

Please feel free to print it out and put it up at your place of work or pass it on or e-mail it to anyone you feel is an Old West Fanatic!

We appreciate any help that you can provide.

Heritage Week 2008 Press Release

2008 radio interviews will be available for download soon...

Click here for the Helper Heritage Week 2007 KOAL/KARB Radio Interview!

This file is a 15 minute (17.7 meg MP3 file) interview on the local "Castle Country F.Y.I." with Host Keith Mason, Museum Director SueAnn Martell and Event Sponsor/Coordinator Darrin Teply telling the upcoming events of the #1 True Western Town's Heritage Week!

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Vendor Information & Form...


We are looking for Sponsors, Vendors, Artists and Performers! Heritage Week is a nationally recognized event right here in the heart of Utah. Every year, we hope to make Heritage Week bigger and better and spread the word about Carbon County, its unique history, its sites, its people and its business opportunities. In return, every Heritage Week brings repeat and new attendees from not only Carbon County and the state of Utah, but surrounding states too!

Do you think you have what it takes to be a part of the #1 True Western Town and the event that gave it that status? Adobe PDF Forms are available below for download or call Heritage Week HQ at (435) 472-6666 or the Western Mining & Railroad Museum at (435) 472-3009.

Heritage Week 2008 Artist/Vendor Form - 57k PDF download

 Sponsor Information & Form...


 Your sponsorship benefits everyone, especially your business. As a sponsor, your company's message will go out to festival attendees and to other people who will see festival advertisements, promotional materials, sponsor cards and DestinationHelper.com! Your sponsorship will also show a new customer base that you care about your community.

Sponsorships are available at four different levels. All contributions are applied to directly offset costs for entertainment, advertising, operations and materials. All festival staff are volunteers and earn no salary. Running an event like this requires a large amount of funding and many people who care! We hope you will pitch in and be a part of the team.

Heritage Week 2008 Sponsor Package (3 pages + Form) - 3.1Meg PDF download

Heritage Week 2008 Sponsor Form - 57k PDF download

In the mean time, mosey on over to Image Replicas Mercantile and see if you like something for that Old West Fanatic in your life. All proceeds go to supporting the Western Mining & Railroad's Heritage Week.

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Bordello Bed Race: Rules, Info & Entry Form...


Our last official Bordello closed in 1974 and 2008 will be our first Bordello Bed Race! Based on Helper's colorful history we have decided to bring back Bordello Beds... only now there will be costumed teams running the beds down the street in a competition... okay, so things haven't changed all that much... but, do you have what it takes to make a racing bed, form a team and sprint down Helper's Main Street into the record books?

As of March 11, 2008, we already have 8 registered teams with themes ranging from our history's Babe the Bordello Babe and Her Suitors, 1880s Firemen, 1880s Barristers (lawyers) and a team thinking of dressing as Elvis with his Alien pushing team! Awards will be issued for speed and overall entry theme!

Do you think you have what it takes to be a part of the #1 True Western Town and the event that gave it that status? Adobe PDF Forms are available below for download or call Heritage Week HQ at (435) 472-6666 or the Western Mining & Railroad Museum at (435) 472-3009.

Heritage Week 2008 Bordello Bed Race: Rules, Info & Entry Form (4 pages + Form) - 88k PDF download

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Advertisement:


Your source for historical photos and you support Heritage Week too!


Destination: Helper
(a division of Teply Graphic Arts & Publishing, LLC)
50 A Street -Helper, Utah 84526
Phone: 1 (435) 472-6666
-Fax: 472-6667
info@destinationhelper.com

Part of the Destination Diversions website series.


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This page was last updated 10.31.2008

 


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